The Great Prince of Life

The Great Prince of Life (Acts 3:13-15, Acts 2:27, Acts 2:31, Ephesians 2:4-6, John 5:21, John 5:25, John 14:6, John 17:2)

In Acts chapter 3 we read of a scene which is at the temple in Jerusalem. God healed a beggar who was lame from his mother’s womb, using the Apostle Peter as His instrument. And when a crowd had gathered around Peter and John and the beggar, Peter took this opportunity to preach another sermon. Let us look at three verses of Peter’s sermon.

Acts 3:13
The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.

Acts 3:14
But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;

Acts 3:15
And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.

Why is the Lord Jesus called the Prince of Life?

First of all, He is called the Prince of Life because God has raised Him from the dead, and hereby God demonstrated that the Lord Jesus was 100% successful in having paid for the sins of all His elect people. This was no small miracle. Even though the Lord Jesus Himself had raised 3 other people from the dead, they were not in Hell when He made them alive. But when He Himself was raised from the dead it proved that the Father did not leave His soul in Hell for an unfinished satisfaction of the sins that He bore (see: Acts 2:27 and Acts 2:31).

Secondly, Christ is called the Prince of Life since He is the giver of spiritual life. Without the payment for our sins we were dead in trespasses and sins, and thus we were on a sure way to Hell. But before the foundation of the world God had mercy on us and placed us IN Christ, not physically for we had not been created yet, but spiritually we were counted as being in Christ. Just as we were placed in Adam, for Adam is our representative in the flesh, so spiritually we were placed in Christ, for Christ is our representative in the Spirit.

On the cross the Lord Jesus bore the sins of all those whom the Father has placed in Him. When Christ was crucified we were crucified with Him. When He died we died with Him. When He was buried we were buried with Him. This is what the Bible says in various places. And then we read in Ephesians 2:4-6,

Ephesians 2:4
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Ephesians 2:5
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Ephesians 2:6
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Therefore God will never send us to Hell, for we have been there already with Christ and in Christ. It also means that Christ did not bear the sins of every human being that lived on this earth, for if He did that then no one would go to Hell; but that is impossible, since the Lord Jesus stated that Hell will be heavily populated.

In John chapter 5 the Lord Jesus had healed a crippled man at the pool of Bethesda, but He had healed him on the Sabbath. Therefore the leaders of the Jews sought to kill Him. It is under these conditions that the Lord Jesus introduced the concept of “limited atonement”, or “particular atonement” which of course is an efficacious atonement. He said in John 5:21, “For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.”

Not everyone in the world will be made alive but, “Even so the Son makes alive whom He will”. He is speaking here about making spiritually alive, a concept that the Jews did not understand very well.

And what does it mean to be made spiritually alive?

It means that in our soul we are no longer dead in trespasses and sins, but that we are made alive in our soul, or another expression is, “we are made born again”.

Can we make ourselves born again?

Can we contribute to getting ourselves be born from above?

God does that 100%. And so you see that Christ, who is God, must make us alive, or else we will be condemned to Hell. Only if He has atoned for our sins will God the Holy Spirit soften our heart and make us willing to believe the Gospel. But we believe because He has made us willing in the day of His power.

God said in Psalm 110:3, “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power”.

On our own we will not believe, for the Devil, the prince of the power of the air, will see to it that we are taken captive by him and act according to his will.

John 5:25
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.

Jesus said, “And now is”. Jesus did not mean to say that the rapture already took place at the time that Jesus walked on earth. Notice that the dead are mentioned but not the grave. (This is in contrast with verse 28 where the graves are mentioned but not the dead.) But in verse 25 the dead are the spiritually dead, the unsaved. Christ is the one who can make these dead hear His voice, just like He made the dead Lazarus to hear the voice of Christ.

The Lord Jesus began His farewell discourse as He spoke to the 11 disciples. And here He made a profound statement which absolutely implies a particular efficacious atonement. The Lord Jesus said in John 14:6,

John 14:6
I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

No one can enter into heaven except through the Lord Jesus Christ. It means that millions of people who were born and died prior to the 1st coming of Christ actually lived in a Christ-less world. The only place on earth where a few people expected the coming of Messiah was in the little country there East of the Mediterranean, but most of the world lived in a Christ-less world. It means that none of those people can enter into heaven, because it was not God’s will to save them.

We will finish in John chapter 17. This is the Lord’s Prayer before He endured the torments in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Lord Jesus spoke to His Father these words in John 17:2,

John 17:2
As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

“As many as Thou hast given Him” does not mean everyone in the whole world, but only “as many as Thou hast given Him”.

Christ gives life to those whom the Father has given Him, which means that He atoned for the sins of all His elect. He is the Prince of Life for all His elect. And when you discover in your life the faith to believe these statements of the Prince of Life, then rejoice that your name is written in heaven. AMEN.

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Alfred J. Chompff